A Castaway's Best Friend
by G.L. Peabody
Summary: Gilligan finds a dog. How can this canine help them off the island?
1. Gilligan's New Pal

_Project Blue Book _took Major Chip Hendricks and Staff Sergeant Jack Williams to a lot of varied environments while they investigated alleged UFO activity. Right now they were hitching a ride on a mail plane delivering much anticipated packages from home to the men of the aircraft carrier USS Kearsarge, on a Western Pacific cruise.

"So what brings you Air Force boys to our little boat?" The Navy Lieutenant flying the plane asked the two career Air Force men.

Hendricks replied, "We're reporting a report of suspicious aerospace activity made by a cruise ship captain, verified by some crew members and passengers."

The pilot laughed to his co-pilot, "I was right… the Air Farce is chasing UFO's"

Hendricks just grumbled. Even though technically he out ranked the pilot, the pilot was the aircraft commander. Plus, he also had to consider the fact that he and his assistant were going to be the only two Air Force men among thousands of sailors on the Kearsarge while they conducted their investigation. An investigation that would go nowhere without the Navy's assistance.

_ Meanwhile, Back on the Island: _

Skipper was in that half-awake stage that follows a good night's sleep. He heard whimpering and whining.

Skipper out of habit ordered, "Gilligan! Take the dog out!"

Gilligan responded, "Right away skipper."

Gilligan then hopped out of his bunk, got a leash that looked like a heavy white cord, hooked it to the dog's collar and took it outside.

Skipper thought: _that's more like it._

A few seconds later Skipper jumped wide awake, wondering if he were dreaming. _DOG? When did we get a dog?_

As soon as Skipper freed himself from his hammock, he saw Gilligan outside walking a Terrier mix as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"Gilligan!" Skipper bellowed, "where did that dog come from?"

Thanks to Skippers voice, which is rumored to be heard across a destroyer in a typhoon, the other five castaways were soon awake. In a matter of minutes Mary Ann and Ginger were fawning over the pooch.

Gilligan answered the Skipper, and the others, "I found him in a tree."

Mr. Howell was the first to say, "my boy, that's preposterous… unless he's part cat."

Oddly enough, Skipper countered with, "Maybe not so preposterous," added while handling the leash, "this is parachute cord… I've handled plenty of it in the Navy."

Not to be out deduced by the Skipper, the Professor asked, "Gilligan, where's the tree that you found our new friend in?"

The seven castaways started on a trek into the jungle with Gilligan in the lead. They came to a palm tree with some sort of canine carrier attached to a parachute.

Mrs. Howell said, "Thurston, that reminds me of the dreadful cage that airline made us put poopsie in—remember that."

Mr. Howell replied, "Yes, then I bought the airline… poopsie always flies first class now. Nothing's to good for my Lovey's Yorkie."

Mary Ann asked, "Who would throw such a cute puppy out of an airplane?"

Ginger shot back with, "Have you ever flown with a dog? When I was still I kid I did one of those dreadful 'Rusty the Wonder Dog' movies. We flew out to a location. I flew coach, Rusty flew first class—howling on take off and landing."

Mrs. Howell made a face at that remark.

The Professor averted a face off by saying, "I don't think we are dealing with an airplane."

The castaways followed the Professor's gaze up into the canopy of tree branches. Spread out over several treetops was a huge remnant of silver polymer will 'CCCP' and a serial number.

The Skippers nautical eye caught on first, "Its a balloon!"

The Professor nodded and explained, "Several countries use balloons like these to test atmospheric conditions for space exploration or other testing. Russia has been known to use dogs in these types of tests. Our friend here's ejection system must have automatically triggered when his balloon went down. I don't want to get people's hopes up, but I'm sure somebody must be looking for our friend and the test data he brought down with him."


	2. Welcome Boris

"I think I'll name him Boris!" Gilligan exclaimed, referring to the dog.

"Thats a good name for a Russian, Little Buddy," laughed the Skipper.

"I've never known a dog named Boris," Mary Ann added good-naturedly.

"I did," Ginger replied sultrily, "but he was a producer."

"Thurston, how can a dog produce a movie?" asked Mrs. Howell.

Mr Howell answered, "I believe she was speaking metaphorically, Lovey."

Gilligan contributed, "I bet Boris is smart enough to produce a movie," which earned a laugh from the group.

The Professor, meanwhile, was deep in thought. You could almost hear the wheels in his brain turning as he stared up at the wreckage of the Russian balloon up in the tree. The Professor noted several large tears in the balloon. He then looked at the cracked canine carrier and expended rocket propelled ejection apparatus. Then the Professor had an idea.

The Professor made his first request, "Gilligan, can you get Boris' gondola down?"

"Sure Professor," Gilligan replied, already halfway up the tree.

The Professor went on, "I'm going to need the heaviest bamboo you can find, strong vine, the sewing kit, and the tool kit. Also, we need to be digging a fire pit, and gathering driftwood."

The castaways complied, not bothering to ask why. They've been with the Professor for a long, long time, and they know eventually they will get their answers, when he is good and ready. The Professor likes to keep things to himself until he's fairly sure of his plan.

Gilligan and Skipper were working the bamboo plants. If one didn't know better, they were swear they were watching an old Abbot and Costello routine. Gilligan would grab a long stalk, and just miss the Skippers head by inches. This went on three or four times.

"Gilligan..." Started the Skipper.

As soon as the Skipper said his mate's name, Gilligan turned around. The problem was, Gilligan was carrying a nine foot bamboo stock, which squarely hit the Skipper in the head. The Skipper went down, Gilligan dropped the stock, and ran to his commander. Once Gilligan helped up his companion, he was rewarded by the Skipper hitting him square on the head with his cap.

"Lets get these stalks back to the Professor," ordered the Skipper.

Once the crew made it back, they saw the other five were gathered together. Mary Ann and Ginger had gathered some driftwood, and the Howells had the sewing kit ready, along with some pretty heavy vines. And the Professor looked as if he were ready to lecture a group of eager graduate students.

The Professor started, "What I intend on doing with the bamboo and vines is to build a scaffold up to the canopy. We need to carefully extract the balloon from the trees to avoid damaging it even more. The sewing kit is for repairing the balloon, while the driftwood is for a fire to fill it with hot air. The balloon won't fly as high as originally intended, but should reach the shipping lanes. Gilligan, our new canine friend has the most critical role of all. Out of respect to the Russian scientists that sent him on his aeronautical voyage, I feel we should send him back on his way. That way the Soviets can see the results of their high altitude experiment. In any case, Boris is a cosmonaut of sorts, and belongs to the Soviet Union. But, he will help us by acting as a carrier pigeon. We can attach a message to his collar, and Boris can lead the rescue boats back to us. I for one, don't care if we are rescued by Russians... as long as we are rescued."

Now it was the castaways turn to be deep in thought. The idea of being rescued was appealing... but by Russians? It was a hard thought to grasp, especially by the two former cold warriors, Skipper and Gilligan. The patriotic farm girl Mary Ann and world renowned capitalist Thurston Howell weren't to pleased either. Ginger Grant had done her share of USO Tours and had first hand experience with the "Red Scare" in Hollywood. It was hard to fathom that the realization of their biggest dream may be at the hands of people that they viewed as 'the enemy.'


	3. Project UFO

The _U.S.S Kearsarge (CVS 33)_ was a 20-year old _Oriskany-_Class aircraft carrier re-outfitted for one very specific purpose: hunting and killing enemy submarines. As such, she had the most advanced electronic devices at the time. This made the _Kearsarge _the ideal platform for Project Blue Book investigators Hendricks and Williams to investigate a UFO sighting in the South Pacific.

Hendricks and Williams were attending a briefing by a young Navy Intelligence Lieutenant (junior grade).

The Lieutenant began, "Four days ago a Royal Hawaiian cruise liner radioed in that a silver object appeared to be floating above the horizon. One of our E-1B early warning aircraft did make a brief radar contact with an unknown object in the area, the contact quickly disappeared in an area with several small islands. Also of interest, there appears to be a Soviet 'fishing trawler' in the area."

Hendricks asked, "So you think its Russian?"

The Naval Officer answered, "Quite Possible, we've arranged a rendezvous with the Royal Hawaiian ship at 0200 this morning. We'll be two nautical miles apart, but the Captain has availed his gig to you gentlemen."

Williams spoke up, "Good thinking, not to alarm the passengers or arouse curiosity. We'll be at the boat launch at 0130. Please thank the Captain for us."

The Captain's gig was a very comfortable small craft generally used for the Captain and senior officers to go to shore. This mission in the middle of the night was quite different, and odd. The two air force officers were in route to a civilian cruise ship to discuss a possible UFO sighting, which in all likelihood was some sort of Russian experimental craft.

The navy coxswain skillfully brought the gig up to the larger cruise ship. Even though the boat was the "captains gig", the Chief Petty Officer that piloted the craft knew the boat was really his, and so did everyone else that was around it. The Chief did have a few chuckles while watching the Air Force men awkwardly climb up the ladder threw down the side of the cruise ship.

When Hendricks and Williams finally made it on deck, they were surprised by two very attractive Hawaiian women presenting them with colorful leis. Not exactly part of their Air Force uniforms, but the two men didn't seem to mind. Behind the women was a smirking thirty-ish man in a cruise ship uniform.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" The cruise ship officer asked Hendricks and Williams with an outstretched hand, which the two other officers shook. "Adam Bricker, MD, Ships Physician. I have the stateroom numbers of the witnesses."

Hendricks and Williams introduced themselves, and went about the process of waking people up on the cruise ship. Basically they got the same sleepy, grumpy statement. It was a silvery object that hovered over the horizon then disappeared. The two Air Force officers returned back to the _Kearsarge _just before dawn, getting odd looks from the sailors and officers, as they forgot to take off the leis.


	4. Up, Up, Up, and Away

Once Again… Back on the Island 

"Professor, do you mind if I listen to my favorite radio show while we work?" Gilligan asked.

Skipper barked, "Gilligan! Getting rescued is much more important that some silly radio show!"

Mary Ann came to Gilligan's defense, "Oh Skipper, we can work and listen at the same time. Besides, it will help the time go by faster."

The Professor agreed, "I don't see the harm in having some music going."

The Skipper relented, knowing he was outnumbered, "Oh, all right. Gilligan, go get the radio." By the time Skipper finished, Gilligan was halfway to the compound.

When Gilligan returned, he was carrying the radio, already on. Much to everybody's surprise, it was an actual radio program, not Gilligan's usual bubblegum pop music.

_Welcome ladies and gentlemen to another episode of "Strange But True!" This story takes us to the South Pacific. Several passengers and crew about Royal Hawaiian Cruise Lines ship The _Aloha Sunset_ witnessed an Unidentified Flying Object. Sources aboard the _Aloha Sunset _report US Air Force officers sneaking aboard during the middle of the night interviewing witnesses. The UFO was spotted flying just above the horizon near an area of several atolls, which were the scene of "island hopping" near World War II. Sources also report the witnesses and the Air Force Officers spending a great deal of time with the ship's physician, Adam Bricker M.D., a veteran of the U.S, Navy. Dr. Bricker would not comment on what sort of medical examinations he performed on these close encounters participants. UFO Expert Dr. Jonas Heilburg told Strange But True, "This is a classic UFO encounter. The US Air Force sends investigators out to make sure that the witness' story goes along with the official government position. Also, this Bricker character is suspect. A well regarded 'former' Naval Physician who treated many of today's astronauts who 'just happens' to be on the vessel who had this Close Encounter of the First Kind. " More on the Aloha UFO when we return._

Gilligan started looking up to the sky, and soon so were the Howells and Ginger and Mary Ann. The Professor and the Skipper just looked at each other.

Finally, it was the Skipper that spoke, "Don't you people understand?" Pointing to the balloon caught in the canopy of the trees, he added, "there's your _Aloha UFO_!"

The Professor contributed, "This is better news than I thought. I assumed the Soviets would be looking for the balloon, but now we have the US Air Force, and several UFO groups searching as well. They'll be disappointed when they find Boris, but at least we'll be rescued."

The 'R word' excited everybody, and five of the seven castaways started going on about being rescued. But Gilligan caught on to a slip the professor made.

Gilligan asked the Professor, "What do you mean find Boris? You can't send him back up in this thing that already crashed once!"

The Professor explained, "Gilligan, Boris' job is to fly back in the balloon. He can give the scientists valuable information, which could eventually send man to the moon. He's a working dog, and this is how he is meant to serve."

The Skipper added, "I hate to say it little buddy, but he's right. Remember the dogs we saw that worked for the Marines? This is no different."

Deep down, Gilligan knew they were right. But he also knew Boris beat the odds once by surviving one balloon crash, and he didn't really want the pooch to take another risk like that.

After a few hours of hard work, the castaways had a scaffold built up to the tree branches. After dinner, the seven took shifts carefully removing the polymer balloon by torch light. By breakfast, they had the balloon on the ground.

Sewing the gaping holes was also a tedious task. The mends had to be extremely tight, plus a rubbery concoction of the professor's devise was applied to the mends to make them airtight. All seven castaways, even the Howells, had to work on the sewing. After several hours, and the abuse of 35 fingers, the balloon was mended. Finally, the castaways could get much needed rest. The professor ordered a good nights sleep, and that they would send Boris on his way at dawn.

The Skipper, Professor, and Gilligan were making the fire needed to fill the balloon while Ginger and Mary Ann made breakfast. It was still dark out, with the sun's rays starting to peak over the horizon on the east. The Howells, of course, were fast asleep.

After the balloon was securely anchored and filling with hot air, the men went to go get breakfast. They were shortly joined by a rather sleepy Mr. and Mrs. Howell.

"Well, good morning, sleepy-heads," said the Skipper.

Mr. Howell replied, "A Howell doesn't rise at 5AM, maybe returns from a social event at that time, but never rises. Is our friend ready for his voyage?"

"Mr. Howell!" snapped Mary Ann, "Can't you see that upsets Gilligan?" Actually, Mary Ann wasn't too thrilled about sending the pooch up either.

Gilligan, unusually down, replied, "I'm not very hungry, I'm going to go get Boris."

As Gilligan left to get his new canine friend, Skipper gave Mr. Howell a glare that said 'are you happy now?'. The other six castaways finished their breakfast in rather unusual silence. They knew the dog was in for a rather risky mission.

Once the balloon was full, they put Boris in his carrier. Also put in the carrier was a message to whoever found the balloon about the location of the survivors of the wreck of the S.S. Minnow. Shortly after dawn, Boris floated up into the wild blue yonder.


	5. Close Encounter

The petty officer on a radar screen reported to the Officer of the Day in the Combat Information Center on the Kearsarge, "Sir, we got a bogie…. flying low and slow to the deck about 100 miles out."

The OOD reported this to the Division Officer, who alerted the Project Blue Book Officers. The Air Force Officers where in the CIC as soon as they could navigate their way through the ship.

"The contact is flying low and slow," the CIC Officer explained to the Air Force Major and Sergeant. "We have a chopper ready to check it out, interested?

Hendricks and Williams didn't have to be asked twice. They changed into their flight suits and made it up to the carrier's flight deck. The helicopter's turbines started to wine as soon as the Air Force investigators got on board.

"Ready for launch, Kirk and Spock are aboard," The Navy pilot reported to the tower, with an obvious reference to the Air Force Officers.

"Very funny, Commander," Major Hendricks replied. Hendricks was an experienced jet pilot, and like most fighter pilots, thought helicopter pilots were a little odd.

"So how long you been chasing green men, Major?" the seasoned Naval Officer asked.

The Air Force Officer replied, "It was a stateside rotation, I'm hoping to get back to a squadron soon."

"I hear you there," replied the Navy Commander, who had also seen the ups and downs of a military career, "I can't stand desk jobs."

Hendricks thought _maybe this guy isn't so bad after all._

After flying around awhile the co-pilot reported, "I think I have a visual."

The pilot confirmed by reporting on the radio, "Kearsarge we have a visual."

The five men on the helicopter, three Navy, two Air Force were all trying to figure out what they were looking at. Then the petty officer aircrewman started to sing "Wouldn't you like to fly on my beautiful balloon…" Pretty soon all three Navy men were singing the 5th Dimension song, much to the annoyance of the Air Force investigators.

The pilot radioed the ship, "Kearsarge, the object is a balloon. Repeat a balloon. Closer inspection shows it is Soviet, probably a high altitude test balloon."

The pilot had an idea on what his orders would be. A Russian test balloon, near a Navy task force whose mission is to sink their subs. The contact could very easily be an espionage platform.

As predicted, the Air Boss ordered the pilot, "Splash the balloon."

The pilot confirmed "roger." The crewman was gaining a target solution with the 50-caliber door gun without having to be told to.

"On your order, sir," the crewman reported to the pilot.

Major Hendricks would have loved to take the balloon back, but he knew that security of the ship was top priority. As soon as the Navy pilot gave the order, the 50 caliber let out a burst, and the balloon plunged to the sea.

Major Hendricks said to no one in particular, "it probably was leaking anyway. Those things are meant to fly a lot higher than this." Far too many of his 'UFOs' turned out to be similar test balloons. Now that this case was closed, he knew it wouldn't be long before he and Williams were off to their next sighting.


	6. The Professor's News

On the Island, One Week Later 

The Professor went for a walk along the beach. The rescue talk was getting to him. It was the only subject of conversation for the past week. He knew that every day after the balloon launch that they were still on they island greater increased the likelihood that the latest attempt was a failure. He knew they knew that too, but he saw no need to take them out of their state of denial. He himself had trouble thinking of the fate of Boris, which was at his hands.

The Professor's worse fears came to fruition when he saw what washed up on the shore. It was a huge sheet of silver polymer riddled with what looked like bullet holes. The Professor walked backed to camp, thinking of how he would deliver the news.

The rescue party was entering day 8 when the Professor entered camp. The slightly tipsy castaways sang "for he's a jolly good fellow" for the Professor. It wasn't the first time.

The Professor simply said, "I have something to say." It was more his tone than the words that brought down the revelry.

"Speak up, man," encouraged Mr. Howell.

"There's something at the beach you need to see," announced the Professor.

The castaways braced themselves. They knew from his tone that it couldn't be good. Never the less, they were not prepared for what they saw.

"Its my fault," said the Professor, "I didn't take into account the effects of putting a Soviet balloon up in U.S. territory."

"You should have," said Gilligan, child like innocence gone, "Boris was the one who paid for your mistake."

The Skipper rebuked, "Gilligan, that was uncalled for. We all are responsible, we all went along with the idea."

The Professor replied, "No, Gilligan's right. Even I am susceptible to rescue fever. I'm sorry to you all, and I'm definitely sorry to Boris."


	7. Epilogue

It was a very silent dinner that night. All of the castaways were feeling guilty, especially the Professor. Mr. Howell tried to break the tension and silence by turning on the radio to hear the news.

_Once again, this is Paul Harvey with the Rest of the Story. Page 7._

_Some people say cats have nine lives, but I've heard from a canine in the South Pacific that has nothing on Felix the Feline. A terrier mix was found floating on some driftwood in the middle of the ocean by the luxury liner Aloha Sunset. The ships physician, Adam Bricker, gave the pooch a full physical and said outside of some dehydration and exposure the happy hound should be fine. The pup was aptly named "Lucky" and made a member of the ships crew. So if you decide to take that second honeymoon with Aloha Sunset, be sure to bring the milk bones._

Almost instantaneously, Gilligan regained his child-like demeanor, "Professor, do you think that could be Boris?"

The Professor laughing replied, "I don't know who else it could be."

The dinner quickly turned into a party. The fact that another opportunity to be rescued was not as important to the castaways as the fact that their new friend found a nice home. Everything soon returned to normal on Gilligan's Island.


End file.
